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Hey you,
Happy Fall🍂(the season… not democracy).
Welcome to the first mid-month edition of this newsletter!
I started out posting monthly because that is all that felt sustainable and, honestly, all I had decently formed content ideas about. Over the last 6 months I’ve thought a lot about this cadence and it hasn’t felt quite right to me. I want to produce thoughtful newsletters that you want to open… but don’t want to go so long in between that you forget about me.
So… welcome to my mid-month note🎉.
It won’t have a full blog post attached. I’ll save that for the newsletter I send on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, but I’ll share anything I’ve been thinking about that feels relevant and use this opportunity to show you what is on my Workbench (what’s that? keep reading to find out), along with sharing any 🧪Potion Picks I’ve been using.
I hope you enjoy it!
P.S. If this was forwarded to you, welcome! Click here to subscribe so you don’t miss the next edition.
P.P.S. Make sure you add this email to your contacts so next month’s edition doesn’t hit your spam folder.
🧪Alchemy Notes
I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to do with the rest of 2025. It’s gone by so quickly and yet so slowly…
I am typically over ambitious in the goals I set for myself and this year doesn’t feel a whole lot different, but I’ve been better about reflecting on a semi-regular basis.
I recently posted about my August reflections and Sept/Q4 forecast on LinkedIn and Instagram, but here’s the summary in case you missed it (thank you social media algorithms):
✅Last week was the Pay Yourself Summit that I participated in, so that one is checked off! (👋🏻Welcome to my new readers who found me through the summit!)
✅I’ve clearly also made the leap to 2x a month newsletter publishing.
The rest of it hasn’t moved much, but I knew September would be a big transition month with the school year starting again so I’m ok with the progress I’ve made.
Hopefully I will be further along by next month’s mid-month newsletter… I just need to avoid the doom-scroll and keep myself focused.
Why Workbench instead of TBR?
Because these are the books checked out from the library right now… aka the ones I’ll be reading soon since… you know… deadlines/due dates. I also have a stack of ‘owned but unread’ books, a queue of holds, and an endless ‘for later’ list on my library profile.
But this Workbench is what’s literally on my table, not just on a list.
📖The Golden Road by William Dalrymple (Currently Reading)
I saw this one all over the place and had great reviews, so I figured it’d help balance out all the fiction I’ve been reading.
📗James by Percival Everett
Another one that’s been all over the place… so I also figured I’d give it a try.
📗The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent
The 2nd book in this series. This is another series (like The Bridge Kingdom, which I’ve discussed in past newsletters) with duologies in a larger series. I’ve discovered I really like this format.
📗Quicksilver by Callie Hart
A book that some love and some say is way overhyped… so that’s made me curious enough to decide for myself.
📗Day Trading Attention by Gary Vaynerchuk
This one was mentioned on a call with my Riveter group sometime last year and it finally made it off my library “for later” list and into my house.
📗Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster by Gerri Willis
I found this one when I was looking at the Seattle Public Library’s “on order” books. It looked fascinating, so I’m looking forward to getting into it.
💥Special Feature: The Home Collection
Alongside the Alchemist’s Workbench, I also have what I call The Home Collection…books I own and plan to savor slowly, revisit often, or keep for reference. This feature will only show up when I have purchased or been gifted a new book, so it won’t make an appearance every month (or at least that’s what my family hopes).
For now, here’s what’s in my collection:
📙Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
A book from my forever expanding TBR that was gifted to me by my mother-in-law after our beloved pet rabbit, Gulliver, passed away. The loss is still surprisingly sharp, so it may take me some time to get to this one.
📙Unbreakable by Vonda Wright, MD
Aging is one of those things where it seems like many of us think it won’t really happen and then one day we realize… oh… it’s happening. This is a highly hyped book by a doctor I respect (and it was given to me as a birthday gift💛).
📙Everybody Writes by Ann Handley
If the newsletter and blog weren’t enough proof - I am trying to write more. Both for myself and for an audience I am working on building. Since I have no formal training in writing I picked this up to learn.
📙Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon
I bought a copy of this for a friend the other year and picked a copy up for myself… and then discovered that I always have so many library books that it’s hard to get to the books I own. This is one I still really want to read though.
📙The Next Day by Melinda Gates
Gifted to me by a friend and I also really want to read this one… but the library has won out lately.
📚 P.S. I read a lot… across strategy, memoir, psychology, and the occasional fantasy/romance/thriller/witchy novel. The book recs in this newsletter aren’t filler. They’re part of how I think, lead, and help clients navigate complexity. Want to see what else is on my shelf? Take a peek at my bookstore (affiliate link, updated regularly).
⚗️Potion Shelf Picks
I only recommend things when I think, “Oh, this could actually help someone skip the spiral.” This is the stuff I use, enjoy, and would suggest over coffee if you mentioned the right kind of headache.
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It sucks waking up everyday and feeling like the world is coming to an end, so finding a place to see what’s going on in the world and still feeling like getting through the day can be tough. I found 1440 and they were awesome enough to want to run an add in this newsletter.
Check it out.
Even if you don’t want an email every day, it’s a great place to go check out what’s going on with a lot less doom.
My accounting software of choice. It keeps me sane, saves me time, and makes sure nothing important slips through the cracks. Their newest updates even add AI tools and a Customer Hub, which is great if you’d rather spend less time chasing invoices and more time actually running your business.
As we head into cold, flu (and COVID) season, I lean on these multivitamins. Yes, whole foods are best… but I don’t know many people with time to make that happen daily. I swear I get sick less often when I take these regularly.
👋🏻Let’s Not Make It Weird
Hi, I’m Tara, Founder and Chief Alchemist at Alchemy Advising. I help founders and execs untangle their finances, rethink pricing, and build smarter systems so their businesses can scale without burnout. After nearly 20 years in finance and ops (with brands like HOKA and UGG), I now bring that big-brand strategy to growing businesses who need clarity, not just spreadsheets.
If you’re new here, here’s how to stick around:
📬 Forward this to a friend whose TBR pile or P&L is getting out of hand.
💬 Hit reply if you’ve got a book recommendation for me (or you just want to say “Hi!”).
📅 Want to talk shop? Visit www.alchemyadvising.co and learn about working together or book a chat.
“When I was born, the word for what I was did not exist.”